Mechanisms of the type for performing a splining operation on a workpiece generally include a pair of elongated dies slidably mounted with respect to each other and spaced in parallel relationship and movable between an end-to-end relationship and an overlapping relationship. Each of the dies include teeth spaced along the length thereof for forming splines. Problems have been encountered in forming snap ring grooves in cylindrically splined members and prior art methods have employed grinding or other techniques for forming the grooves, for example, cutting the grooves in after the splining operation which is expensive and not economical on a mass production scale.
U.S. Pat. No. 446,932 to Simonds shows a method and apparatus for making screw threaded rolled formings including a groove forming section and thread forming protrusion and U.S. Pat. No. 446,933, also to Simonds, discloses a device for knurling the surface of metal articles including a groove forming portion and a knurling forming portion. Another U.S. Pat. No. 446,934 to Simonds discloses a rolled forging making assembly for making non-circular members including spreading and reducing surfaces and forming surfaces. However, none of the above patents disclose a mechanism for forming grooves in a splined member during a single rolling operation.